This is the first in a series of posts on the reasons I will not be voting to return the former president to the White House. My focus here is not to support his opponent but instead to explain why I believe that Donald Trump is manifestly unqualified for the role. For someone who graduated from the Wharton School (albeit graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics rather than an MBA), Mr. Trump has little or no understanding of how tariffs actually work. Let's start simple: a tariff is a tax on foreign goods, not on a foreign country. The Chinese government is not paying the tariff ..read more

While I wasn’t able to attend GenCon and the events celebrating the return of Heroscape after fourteen years, I did have the privilege of receiving review copies of the first wave of releases… and so, it’s time to answer some questions.  Luckily for you, gentle readers, I’ll be assisted in this by my two sons – both who grew up playing Heroscape and are now gamers in their own right. Braeden is 23 and Collin is 19… and between us we have 50+ years of experience at the game. Over the last month, we’ve had the opportunity to play 12+ games with the newly released material. Before we g ..read more

A decade ago, I wrote a post about soccer board games... so, with the US Men's team playing Uruguay tonight and both US men and women playing in the Olympics later this month, I figured it was a good time to revisit and update my thoughts.  Soccer was the first sport I ever felt semi-competent at as a kid... which probably has a lot to do with my enjoyment of the game, particularly played at major international tournament level. It's the only sport I've ever "officially" coached. (Note: I coached Under 6 soccer, which is kind of like saying, "I herded cats while they played with a white ..read more

Yep, it's happened. With yet another trip around the sun, my personal odometer has turned over and I am, as the title of the post implies, sixty years old. When I was younger, 60 sounded really, really old... and sometimes the aches & pains of my aging body remind me that younger me wasn't completely off base. But most of the time, I feel like my attitude about life is younger than my physical age. This week, I've found myself reflecting on the past six decades of my life. I spent nearly half of my life in full-time vocational ministry as a Southern Baptist youth minister, church pl ..read more

In November of 2010, I posted a sad goodbye to a game system that I'd not only collected & played, but also playtested. Hasbro chose to end the Heroscape line after releasing four master box sets, thirteen waves of figures, three boxes of large figures, a wave of flagbearers with custom dice, and four boxes of special terrain over six amazing years.  Well, as Mark Twain once (purportedly) said, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Because, unless Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast has manufactured the terrain out of some kind of special plastic that they can detonate by r ..read more

Memoir '44 BoardGameGeek rank: 192 rating: 7.5 published: 2004 designer: Richard Borg Print Status in print Why It's On The List The best (and best supported!) of the Command & Colors games... it combines a wonderous toy factor (plastic army men & tanks!) along with remarkably evocative recreations of WW2 battles. This is the perfect collision of all the eras of my gaming life: it's got enough warfare &; tactics for the chit-pusher in me, the gorgeous plastic bits remind me of the day we cracked open Axis & Allies for the first time, and the speedy gameplay fits my curre ..read more

Return to Dark Tower  BoardGameGeek rank: 268 rating: 8.3 published: 2022 designers: Tim Burrell-Saward, Rob Daviau, Isaac Childres, Noah Cohen, Justin Jacobsen, & Brian Neff Print Status available Why It's On The List A completely immersive cooperative game that utilizes the "gimmick" of the tower beautifully, integrates the app into the game in ways that make the game more playable, and doubles down on the usual gorgeous production from Restoration Games. Tips & Tricks: There are not many games that work well across all player counts - Return to Dark Tower breaks that r ..read more

Clash of Cultures  BoardGameGeek rank: 465 rating: 7.6 published: 2012 designer: Christian Marcussen Print Status the original edition is out of print... but the new edition (which includes the impossible to find expansion and a number of tweaks) is available Why It's On The List My favorite civilization-building game... the free-wheeling tech-tree and relatively simple mechanics make for an excellent play experience with 2, 3 or 4 players. Tips & Tricks: Playing an online game of the Tresham version of Civilization a couple of years ago makes me like Clash of C ..read more

Heroscape  BoardGameGeek rank: 487 rating: 7.4 published: 2004 designers: Stephen Baker, Rob Daviau, and Craig Van Ness Print Status out of print... but not for long (see below)!!! Why It's On The List Heroscape is the ultimate blending of board game & miniatures game... and, in a slick move that allowed them to make lots of cool figures, a great blending of genres, as all the characters are warriors sucked through time & space into the world of Heroscape. So, you've got Matrix guys & Braveheart & dragons & robots & kung fu monks & gorillas wit ..read more

Fast Food Franchise BoardGameGeek rank: 7,267 rating: 6.3 published: 1992 designer: Tom Lehmann Print Status really out of print Why It's On The List Imagine if the designer of Race for the Galaxy decided to take making a roll'n'move that both gamers & non-gamers could love... that combined some very Monopoly-ish elements with tactical board play. And then you can wake up & play it, because this is actually Tom Lehmann's first game design! Tips & Tricks: Despite initial appearances, all of the companies are viable options for strategies to win Fast ..read more